Last night I bought a Leekeworld Gift Project Little Mermaid for $150.00 [!] shipped off Ebay. She’s a pretty rare BJD, as she was only offered as a gift between August 30th and September 26th, 2012 to customers who spent a certain amount. Those who spent over $350.00 got a version of her with a human body, while those who spent over $450.00 got a version of her with a mermaid tail. This, of course, irritated me to no end, as I of course wanted a 1:6 scale mermaid BJD, but absolutely nothing else from Leekeworld, certainly not $450.00 of stuff.
The Leekeworld Little Mermaid is not a $450.00 doll. Despite an overall cute concept — she’s 20cm in human form, so she’s basically a merkid with a chubby face — she suffers from poor design. She has a questionably long torso, which, combined with her short limbs, just makes her look weird. Both human and mer versions have underbust joints and hip joints, but no waist joints, meaning that the long torso never achieves fluid, realistic posture. To make matters worse, while the human version has double-jointed knees, the mer version has articulation only at the hip and at the base of the tail. I thought Soom’s merdolls had abysmal articulation, but at least they can sit down, as Faery Legend Azur demonstrates. Again, Leekeworld Little Mermaid is not anywhere near a $450.00 doll. She’s a $150.00 doll that needs a lot of help.
Delmar, as I have named her, requires serious work. I’m not sure what’s going on with her resin color, whether she’s faded and/or blushed, but she definitely needs all current pigmentation, including faceup, removed. The orange and grey color scheme works surprisingly well, so I may keep that, but first she needs disassembly, thorough cleaning, and restringing. I may also shorten her torso so that the horrible hip joint becomes more of a waist joint. There may also be the addition of a “knee” joint in the future or perhaps even a wholesale replacement of that irritatingly unbending tail.
Delmar is a VERY LOUD Goth in training and Submit’s friend. Pictures from auction [taken by seller tealmermaid] below:
